Chapter 24: Moving Up and Hitting the Fan

Mark and some of his extended family came by the Circle on Friday evening for cocktails and dinner. Mark sought out Dave as soon as he walked onto the patio. Dave was tending bar along with Phil. The bar was again a new one, this time a more permanent installation outside on the patio and able to seat sixteen people on the new barstools. More than that could gather around. Several new high-top tables that matched the older ones were also nearby. The bar had turned out to be the hub for the early evening gathers and then later around ten or ten-thirty when people returned there after their first round of lovemaking to ‘discover’ another partner, if they wanted.

Mark grinned at his relatively new friend; “I need to talk with you about something.”

Dave figured it had to do with some kind of social interaction between the groups, or even more about Christie and how she was being treated. Things had cooled down for her at the university and the hate mail had all but stopped. He got Dale to take over for him, and walked off with Mark since he’d indicated he wanted some privacy about whatever it was. Mark’s broad smile signaled Dave that it was nothing serious.

Mark said, “Have you ever thought of leaving Florida Power and Light and taking on another challenging job?”

Dave was taken aback and came to a stop. “No. I’m in a key position there, and I wouldn’t want to let Derek down, especially after the significant support he’s given me. I just got promoted a year or so ago, right after Hurricane Marco. I’m a very loyal guy.”

“You’re Vice President of Lines, if I have the title right. That is important in a public power utility – in fact, it’s the hub position.”

Dave nodded. “I think so. Derek had the job before me and he rose to CEO. I try not to let it go to my head. Mostly its jockeying resources in creative ways to get the most bang for the buck.” Both men knew it was more significant that paper shuffling that Dave suggested.

Mark speculated, “And Nancy Mason is your number two and would do a great job in your shoes if you vacated the job.”

“I think so. I’m not planning on kicking the bucket anytime soon, though. She is sharp, and I certainly enjoy working with her. She’s got Sheri Seaton following in her footsteps, too.”

“What if Derek was all right with you leaving to take on a new position?”

Dave shook his head. “I’d have to think about it. It’s funny, I agitate for everyone around me to take risks and break the rules and I’ve done what others tell me are some innovative things within my area, but I’ve been pretty conservative about my own career other than that.”

Mark laughed, “We’re all the same way. Just so you know, I did talk to Derek. While he would hate to lose you, especially as a friend, sounding board, and colleague, he supports what I’m proposing. He urges you to accept my offer. You can ask him.”

“Uh oh,” Dave said in a worried tone. “What’s been going on behind my back?”

“I didn’t want to ask you if Derek couldn’t support your move to a new, outside post. I like him and value his judgment. I also don’t want to lose him as a friend any more than you do. If he were younger, I’d ask him, to tell the truth. He understands the CEO position, but I think you have most of that and are more daring on the job. What I’m thinking about requires ‘daring’.””

“What are you offering?”

Mark reached beside him in a small portfolio and pulled out a sheet of paper. “This is a Non-Disclosure Agreement. It says I own your balls if you talk about what I’m about to tell you in an inappropriate manner.”

“I understand.” Dave scanned the document and signed it. “If this is the prelude to talking about some kind of job, it must be a’ wowsie’ position.”

Mark chuckled, “Tom Power, who you’ve met, and I have been working on a development a smart young man in one of my R&D centers named Nat Sterling came up with. It’s a unique battery that is lightweight, charges rapidly, doesn’t wear out that we can tell, can handle hundreds of thousands of recharges without degradation, and has an inordinately high energy-density so it lasts and lasts before it runs out of juice.

“As far as we can tell, and we’ve done some testing, the batteries are safe, meaning no explosions like the lithium-ion batteries that plagued Samsung, they’re fast charging, and we think they’re relatively easy to manufacture. The battery could power your cellphone without recharging for over a year at full brightness with the cellphone on a continuous open two-way call link. In many applications, the battery would last longer than the product. Think of a car with one less component that would wear out. Those are the major benefits.”

Dave’s eyebrows had rotated up his forehead at Mark’s description of the technology. He asked, “Cost? Downsides?”

“Not outrageous. The technology is based on Lithium and Thallium, and we’ve cornered the world market on the elements, particularly Thallium. We really want to capitalize on this.”

“What would you want me to do?”

“Fundamentally, I want you to take over from Tom, make this a real company with manufacturing plants and resources, and get this sucker to market in a way that makes everyone want them in everything they own. We have fast-track patent applications about to be issued we’re told, so we have the technology protected for the next seventeen years. I don’t mind being an innovative monopoly.”

Dave frowned, “The battery market, if this is what it sounds like, is endless. I mean this could be worth billions.”

“Tom did an estimate and thinks the company could make about $1.4 Trillion in profits – that’s trillion with a ‘T’, over the next ten years. Your job would be to make it happen.”

“Holy shit. That sounds like a wild ride. Every direction you turn there’s an application. No one is making them?”

“Only in our labs experimentally. We even have some spinoff technologies that look just as promising, but we can talk about those later. Nat had been working on manufacturing techniques with a small team of developers. The Thallium is a hazmat, but we can work around that safely. We’ve kept a lid on this, but any day we expect a leak or something, especially since the patents will become announced very soon when they’re issued.”

“Tell me about the position,” Dave suggested.

Mark launched into a description of the position he wanted Dave to assume, namely CEO of a new corporate entity dedicated to the production, licensing, marketing, and application of the new battery technology. The company would issue stock separate from Worthington Industries, and Dave along with a few of the other Worthington executives would be initial major share holders. Dave would get to name the company. Mark thought they’d do an IPO once the first several major implementations of the technology had been on the market.

Dave sat back and pondered the whole situation. “What’s the downside of this?”

Mark shook his head, “Damned if I can think of any, short of you leaving Derek, Nancy, and the others that work where you do now. You could bring some of the underlings with you if you want; for instance, Nikky, who I know is your EA. From our conversation, Derek will name Nancy to become Vice President. Sheri would move up, too.”

Dave got up and walked around as Mark watched him. His brain was in turmoil. He came back towards Mark and asked, “No salary, right? All bonus and profit sharing.”

Mark laughed, “I’ll give you a million as a signing bonus, plus a company car of your choice, use of the jets, the villa, and anything else you can think of that doesn’t classify as salary – perks galore, if you will. That’s the same basis as me, Andy, Tom, and a few others. Except for those thing, you eat what you kill, in other words.”

“What’s Tom going to do? Am I taking something away from him?”

“No, he doesn’t want the job. I’m moving him up. I want him to replace me in my role as head of all operations. I want him to fix the day-to-day stuff that’s already underway, except in the battery business. That’s his forte. The battery business is your job. Personally, I want to get into the strategic stuff, including other state of the art advances going on in our labs.”

“Let me talk to some people first. I’m inclined to say yes. When do you have to know for sure?”

“How about midnight?”

Dave laughed, “Shit, you put a lot of pressure on a guy.”

“Just wait until you feel the pressure that I’ll put on you in the job. I want it all, right now!” Mark also laughed.

The pair split apart, and Dave went and got a drink – his wine over ice that had been his trademark drink for years. He saw Derek just arriving, and made a beeline for the man.

“Derek, I need to talk to you.”

Derek grinned, “I bet that Mark Worthington talked to you.”

Dave nodded. “I am a man that is intensely loyal to my friends, and you are more than a friend. You’ve been my mentor and number one supporter from the first time we met. I won’t leave if you want me.”

Derek smiled, “Don’t pass up an opportunity to better your own circumstances. I never have, and you shouldn’t either. I understand your loyalty and friendship, and I am grateful. Neither of those will suffer, AND you should take the position that Mark is offering you.”

“But Nancy...”

“I love Nancy, and you’ve done a superior job in always grooming her to take over from you. She’s done the same with Sheri. I’ve seen lots of promotions get squelched because the exec didn’t groom his or her replacement. You have and that makes my agreeing to this much easier. Congratulations.”

“He wants an answer by midnight.”

Derek laughed “Go talk to Alice and Pam, and then tell him you accept. I see him talking with them right now.”

Dave turned and saw that Alice and Pam were paying close attention to whatever Mark was saying to them. He headed over to them.

Mark was just finishing his point, “So, that in a nutshell is what I asked your husband to do.”

Alice and Pam turned to Dave as he arrived, “And, you said yes, of course.”

“I wanted to talk to you first.”

Alice went, “Pfffft! Tell him yes. I think this is a superb opportunity for you. Take your own advice and do something bold.”

Dave turned to Mark, “I guess the answer is Yes, I accept your offer. What now?”

Mark nodded, “Derek is expecting you to handoff to Nancy next week, and so why don’t you start a week from Monday. I think that’s March tenth. Come to my office in Tampa and we’ll figure out what to do with you. I’ve been thinking of moving your whole operation to Sarasota so that we could get it away from the other, more mature Worthington businesses. Nat lives down this way, too – Lakewood Ranch, as I recall. I want a lot of ideas in this startup that break all the rules. Think up a name for the new company, too. We’ll want to start using that right away.”

“Yes sir, boss, sir,” Dave teased and saluted.

Sunday morning, Dave walked onto the patio ready to do his cooking breakfast routine for everybody in the Circle. Nancy had spent the night with him and volunteered to help. Sharon and Cindy were there in their cute little sexy waitress uniforms, sans underwear. Ron showed up to help on the grill in the kitchen as a short-order cook. Several others were already cleaning the tables and helping get organized.

Nancy came in after delivering one of the first orders – some French toast. She told Dave, “You’d better go out to the patio. Several of the others have spotted something in the newspaper, and I was told to tell you it’s not good news.”

Dave grabbed his endless cup of coffee and hustled out to the patio. Ty, Dori, and Pam flagged him down with a wild wave. The three had the newspaper opened in front of them.

Ty said, “Tampa Times – Sunday edition; look at this.”

Dave scanned the front page of the ‘Local Living’ section. He started reading: